


Coniungantur Animae

by Sineala



Category: Frontier Wolf - Rosemary Sutcliff
Genre: Community: trope_bingo, Crack, M/M, Soul Bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-07
Updated: 2013-04-07
Packaged: 2017-12-07 17:45:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/751262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sineala/pseuds/Sineala
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Don't touch strange stones you find in the woods. Really, don't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coniungantur Animae

**Author's Note:**

> For Trope Bingo, round one, the square "soulbonding/soul mates."

They came upon the little stone in a clearing. It was smooth and dark, like the Lady's stone that all the Wolves swore by, but there the resemblance ended, for if this had ever been such a grand thing once, it no longer was now. It was a flat surface, barely as wide as a man's arm, sunken into the dirt, one end covered with weeds and dry leaves.

"Horrible fate for an altar stone," Hilarion was moved to say, and he swept away a bit of the leafmold with the tip of his boot. He could not find it in himself to joke about that.

Lucius grimaced and made one of those strange Christian signs, moving his hand from forehead to navel to his shoulders in turn.

"Oh," said Hilarion, half-amused and half-annoyed by the other centenarius' reticence, "you'll touch the Lady's stone with the rest of us, but now, now you're too good for this? Come, even if you don't swear by this one, at least help me clear it." Whoever had set this up deserved to have their vows honored.

Without waiting for a reply, he knelt and began to brush away more of the dirt. The jingle and creaking next to him meant that Lucius was likely doing the same. Good.

"There's something written there," Lucius said, absently, reaching out his hand to clear away a few more leaves.

Hilarion snorted. "It would be a very poor sort of offering-stone if no one wrote anything on it, my dear. Take the advice of a barbarian like myself."

And then it happened quite suddenly: as Lucius was tracing the newly-exposed worn lettering with his fingertips, Hilarion set his hand down flat upon the other end of the stone. There was a tremendous crackle in the air, the smell of a storm, and a burst of what might have been pain, like touching metal on a cold winter day. Hilarion's ears rang.

"Ai!" he cried out, leaping backwards, shaking his hand, and next to him Lucius hissed. "Lucius, it stung you too?"

Lucius was looking at him, terrified and wide-eyed. _O God, O God, what has happened to us?_ Something was wrong about the way he said it, something was very strange and Hilarion almost, almost knew what it was.

"The god there took exception to us, eh?" he drawled, trying to find some sort of humor in it.

 _Hilarion, so help me._ Lucius' face twisted, his mouth a knife-thin line of misery. _Do not even jest about this._

He hadn't opened his mouth when he spoke. Ah, gods, he hadn't opened his mouth and Hilarion had heard him, just as if he'd said the thing--

 _You can hear this?_ he thought, as carefully as he could, and Lucius nodded, mute and miserable.

Hilarion looked down, where Lucius' hand was still on the stone. Instead of the usual chiseled lines -- the god, the offerer, the ordinary formulas of an offering stone -- this one bore exactly two words: CONIVNGANTVR ANIMAE.

 _Let the souls be joined together,_ Hilarion thought. Well, no one could accuse the stone of failing to meet its promises. "Lucius, did you see what it says?"

Another nod, even more miserable. "Of course I can read it. What are we going to do?"

"Be married, I suppose," Hilarion said, cheerfully, and Lucius glared at him.

"I do not think it means that. It says nothing about matrimony." Lucius sounded desperate now. "Besides, I'm not-- you're not--" He seemed to be having difficulty finishing the sentence aloud, but in his mind it tripped and tumbled its way to an end. _Neither of us are anything like a woman._

 _That's not what my last lover said about me._ Hilarion was at least good enough not to say it out loud, but that was no longer good enough for the situation.

Lucius covered his face with his free hand.

"He was very complimentary about it?" offered Hilarion.

Lucius groaned.

"Think of the tactical advantages. You'll always be able to talk to me."

This did not cheer Lucius as much as Hilarion had hoped.

Lucius dropped his hand away from his face and finally stood up.

 _We should tell the commander. We have to tell the commander. He has to see this._ Lucius' thoughts were all the same thought, circling itself. _What will he say? We have to tell him. Bring him here._

"Why," asked Hilarion, as sweetly as he could, "did you want to marry him as well?"

Saying nothing in reply, Lucius stomped off toward Castellum through the trees.

"I love you too," yelled Hilarion, at Lucius' rapidly retreating back.

He wasn't sure, but he thought he heard Lucius start to laugh. It could also have been a sob.

 _Well, at least I like you,_ came the very quiet thought, in reply, and Hilarion was not certain if Lucius meant for him to hear it. _Could have been worse._

Hilarion supposed that would be good enough, for now. He wondered if the gods also handled divorces.


End file.
